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Love and the Ten Commandments

If you truly love someone you will treat them well. You will honor them, and you will certainly not murder them. You will not cheat on them, steal from them, lie about them, or covet what they have. At least, if you love them, you will surely try.

To pull this off you’ll have to be patient, kind, not envious, and not work to look more important than the person you love. I can’t imagine that you’d be rude to them or easily angered by them. When they‘ve wronged you, you’d forgive and forget. You’d protect them, trust them, and hope the best for them.

You may have guessed that what I’ve done here is to connect the Ten Commandments and Paul’s description of love in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. The Ten Commandments are not just rules to contain us, they are truly about love. The first four commandments are about loving God. The other six are about loving each other. You cannot adhere to the Ten Commandments without love. As a matter of fact, if you don’t love God or your fellow humans, why would you even try to adhere to the Ten Commandments?

Jesus summed it up this way: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” “This is the first and greatest commandment.” “And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40) There you have it. Love is at the root of what God commands. Love as well as you can, and ask God to increase the love in your heart.